Saturday, September 30, 2017

Police and military authorities in Maguindanao said the twin explosions of improvised bomb in Datu Odin Sinsuat (DOS), Maguindanao on Wednesday was a diversionary tactic by ISIS-inspired group that has been the subject of air strikes and artillery fire from the military.

Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindanao police director, told reporters after a joint peace and security joint coordinating meeting of police and military in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao that the explosion set off by Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Barangay Semba injured two soldiers, a police officer and a village chair.

“This is the signature armament of the BIFF,” Tello said of the twin explosions.

The BIFF Esmael Abdulmalik faction has been the subject of joint Army and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) offensives. About 60 BIFF had already been killed and about 25 on the side of the MILF which is fighting alongside with the Philippine Army.

According to Colonel Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, the strength of the BIFF Abdulmalik faction is dwindling.

He estimated the remaining members to about 40 to 45 and the military will continue hunting them with the MILF’s Task Force Ittihad (Unity).

Fighting between former comrades, MILF and BIFF, erupted in early August after the ISIS allied group headed by Abdulmalik tried, but failed, to hoist ISIS black flag in communities identified with the MILF.

Army and MILF became partners against the BIFF as contained in the 1997 ceasefire agreement where the MILF must help the government in getting rid of lawless elements and terrorists in Maguindanao and other areas.

The BIFF bolted out of MILF in 2008 due to ideological differences.

According to Tello, the Maguindanao police will always support the military campaign against BIFF Abdulmalik faction who, according to intelligence reports, had been aided by Malaysian and Indonesian terrorists.

More Army and police checkpoints have been established in Maguindanao major highways as the government expects the BIFF will set off bombs to divert military offensives.

On Tuesday, the Army foiled bombing plot in North Cotabato with the arrest of Muslimin Ladtugan with power explosives in a raid in Midsayap, North Cotabato.Ladtungan, a bomb expert of the BIFF Abdulmalik faction, was out to set off bombs in populated areas of the province as diversionary tactics, according to Lt. Gen. Arnel dela Vega, commander of the 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao.

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 29): Dead Maute group members now 736

The number of slain Maute Group terrorists in the ongoing military operations in Marawi City has now climbed to 736, said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said on Friday.

He said this includes the 21 remains or cadavers recovered during Thursday's operations. Government losses are now placed at 153 troops. Civilians executed or killed by the terrorists is still at 47 while rescued Marawi City residents are at 1,733.

Recovered weapons numbered at 789, including 82 recovered Thursday.

Fighting in Marawi City broke out after a botched attempt to arrest Abu Sayyaf leader IsnilonHapilon last May 23.

Earlier, Defense Secretary DelfinLorenzana said that lives of surrendering Maute Group terrorists will be spared provided they surrender peacefully.

He made this statement after Lanao Del Sur 2nd District Rep. Mauyag Papandayan told him that some of the surviving terrorists have expressed willingness to surrender.

"I told him no problem. In fact, Western Mindanao Command troops are going around with bullhorns daily in Marawi City (urging them to surrender). If they want to surrender, then they must come out with their hands up and our soldiers will not kill them, our troops don't kill surrendering people," he said.

Once these terrorists surrender, the DND chief said it is up to the courts to determine what kind of charges and sanctions would be meted against them.

American and Filipino marines are set to conduct the first iteration of the "Kaagapay ng mga Mandirigma ng Dagat" (KAMANDAG) exercises on October 2-11.

The maneuvers will be held in Clark and Basa air bases in Pampanga; Marines Barracks Camp Gregorio Lim in Ternate, Cavite; Crow Valley in Tarlac; Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija; the Naval Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Zambales; and Aurora, Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) spokesperson Capt. Maria Rowena Dalmacio said Friday.

The KAMANDAG is a bilateral exercise that focuses on capability development on humanitarian assistance and disaster response, internal security operations and counterterrorism.

The joint military exercises will also focus on revitalizing the inter-operability of the Philippines and US militaries in post-crisis response through the conduct of disaster rehabilitation and rural development projects.

These will materialize through the engineering civic action program (ENCAP) and medical action program (MEDCAP) activities to be conducted in Northern Luzon, particularly in Casiguran, Aurora.

Local residents will benefit from the MEDCAP, while two schools in Casiguran, Aurora will benefit from the ENCAP, where engineers from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force will also participate.

On 24 September 2017, a gun battle between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (NPA) and a faction of National People’s Army (NPA) led by Mario Macaraig, alias Jethro, of the NPA front “Honda” occurred in Mt. Banoy in Barangay Talumpok Silangan, Batangas City. The firefight started around 8:50 a.m. after members of the 730th Combat Group of the Philippine Air Force chanced upon a supposed rebel encampment.Number of Affected Families / Persons
To date, 113 families or 490 persons have been affected in Batangas City, Batangas in Region CALABARZON (see Table 1).

From the Business Mirror (Sep 30): Creation of defense university pushed

In Photo: President Duterte addresses troops during his visit to the 2nd Mechanized Brigade on May 26, 2017, on the outskirts of Iligan City in southern Philippines. At left is Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año and at center is Defense Chief Delfin Lorenzana.

AN official of the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) is pushing for the creation of a National Defense University (NDU), which is envisioned to produce a greater number of Filipinos with defense and security backgrounds and elevate the subject of security to a national level.

The establishment of an NDU could not be more timely and appropriate, as the country is facing both internal and territorial threats, with the domestic challenge coming from a three-pronged threat, including terrorism.

NDCP Executive Vice President, retired Major Gen. Rolando Jungco, said a draft on the creation of the proposed NDU has already been submitted to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for review prior to congressional submission.

This early, the proposal already earned the support of several legislators, including Sen. Loren Legarda and Rep. Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon of Muntinlupa.

Legarda, like a few number of lawmakers, is a graduate of the NDCP and is a reserve officer of the Philippine Air Force. Biazon, on the other hand, is a former Customs commissioner under the Aquino administration and son of retired Armed Forces Chief of Staff Rodolfo Biazon, also a former senator.

The proposed NDU, if approved by Congress, shall offer baccalaureate and postgraduate degrees in defense and security courses. It is eyed to initially rise at the compound of the NDCP inside Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

‘Unique’

IN pushing for the creation of an NDU, Jungco noted that the Philippines is the only country in the region without such a school, which is an irony, as the country counts the most number of security challenges among the states in Southeast Asia.

Jungco said that in Indonesia and Thailand, you cannot be a lawmaker unless you have gone through their defense universities.

China, on the other hand, has two defense schools—one for defense and another for science and technology.

The Thai and Indonesian examples are what Jungco and the other proponents of the NDU want the Philippines to emulate.

Jungco said the NDU should have as students members of Congress, noting that some lawmakers do not have a full grasp of, or could not fully understand, national security and its surrounding issues.

He said its intention is to develop, harness and encourage the lawmakers to think strategically for defense and security.

Defense Act revision

WHILE there may have been support for the creation of an NDU from members of Congress, it may take time, however, before it could be set up, as the proposal has to be incorporated into an updated National Defense Act of 1935.

Jungco said the law only talks about the military. The Department of National Defense (DND) along with its other attached agencies are not even mentioned in the law.

The military, or the Armed Forces of the Philippines, falls under the DND.

In revisiting the Defense Act through the creation of the NDU, Jungco said they also proposed the inclusion of the DND and its agencies, including the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, the NDCP, Office of Civil Defense and the Government Arsenal, in the law.

The National Defense Act of 1935 is the only defense law in the country.

If the creation of the NDU materializes, it will have a mixture of civilian and military students.

Jungco said the students of the university should include lawmakers, all generals of the AFP with no exemption, and others in the civilian sector, including businessmen.

“Ideally, it would be under the Commission on Higher Education, but focusing more on defense and resource management,” Jungco said.

FILE - Philippine troops march as a Philippine Air Force C-130 transport plane carrying Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Eduardo Ano and other officials, sits on the tarmac at the Philippine-claimed Thitu Island off the disputed Spratlys chain of islands in the South China Sea, April 21, 2017 in western Philippines.

The Philippines has found funding for the biggest in a series of infrastructure upgrades planned on the islets it holds in the contested South China Sea, a move that will gently remind other countries, including China, of Manila’s claims.

Money from the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Modernization Program will next year fund the paving of a 1,300-meter-long gravel and dirt runway on Thitu Island, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was quoted saying this month. Thitu anchors Manila’s holdings in the Spratly archipelago, which is also disputed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The runway upgrade is expected to lead to repairs of barracks, water systems and other infrastructure on nine Spratly islets controlled by the Philippines per a pledge in April from the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte. The 15-year Modernization Program hatched in 2012 has a budget of $2.56 million this year.

FILE - Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana tours the Philippine-claimed island of Pag-asa, also known as Thitu, during his visit to the Spratlys chain of islands in the disputed South China Sea, April 21, 2017.

Manila’s upgrades would serve as a reminder, yet one unlikely to outrage other countries, that it intends to hold on to its nine Spratly features.

Beijing, the most aggressive claimant in those 100-plus islands as well as the broader South China Sea around them, has befriended the Philippines over the past year but only after years of diplomatic hostility that some Filipinos fear could resurface.

“I imagine there’s a feeling that the time has come to consider other options,” said Jonathan Spangler, director, South China Sea Think Tank in Taipei. “I just think it’s more like a hedging thing, like making sure you don’t go all the way in one direction.”

FILE - Protesters shout slogans and display placards outside of the Chinese Consulate in protest of China's occupation and island-building in the disputed Spratly Island group in the South China Sea in Makati city's financial district east of Manila, Philippines.

After China parked research vessels over an ocean plateau off the Philippine Pacific coast, Duterte faced public pressure to resist Beijing again. In April he vowed to upgrade the Spratly holdings.

Two months ago, a Chinese vessel apparently planted its national flag on Sandy Cay, which lies in the Philippine-controlled part of the Spratly chain, touching off more concerns among Filipinos. Both countries prize the sea for its fisheries and fossil fuel reserves.

Ambitions for the Spratly Islands

​The Philippines can help lock in its Spratly claims by showing human habitation and economic activity, Spangler noted. About 100 civilians, many connected to military activity, live on Thitu Island, the chain’s second largest natural land form at 37 hectares (91 acres). Some in the Philippines advocate opening it to tourism.

Lorenzana visited Thitu in April to “check on the condition of the residents,” according to a defense department statement.

The unpaved runway can only allow military aircraft, mostly for transport, limiting who can access the island, analysts say.

Plans to refurbish infrastructure in the Spratly Islands fits with a “natural order of things” that any country would do to improve defense, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. The modernization budget must be spent, he added.

“I wouldn’t read too much in this. Clearly it’s defensive in nature,” he said. “It’s a routine part of modernization.”

The Philippine military ranks No. 50 in the world on a list of 133 countries tracked by the research database GlobalFirePower.com.

Thitu, in the Spratly Islands

​Mixed Sino-Philippine relations

Tighter relations with China also reduce the urgency of bulking up military facilities on the islets for defense or offense, said Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines.

“Overall I don’t think they will put anything in really big at this point, if you go by how the government is very friendly towards China,” Batongbacal said.

After Manila won a World Court arbitration case against Beijing, which was told it lacked a legal basis for much of its South China Sea claims, Duterte offered to set aside maritime disputes that had festered since 2012. In October, China pledged $24 billion in aid and investment to the Philippines.

But China’s stationing of research vessels off the Pacific coast over a feature called the Benham Rise, and the Sandy Cay flap, keep its friendship with the Philippines in check, other analysts say. China also controls Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing spot that lies inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone west of Luzon Island. In many years it declares fishing moratoriums that encompass Philippine waters.

The Sandy Cay incident shows that China may be “engaging in a coercive demonstration around Thitu in order to dissuade the Philippine authorities from carrying out long-planned repairs and extensive infrastructure upgrades,” said Euan Graham, international security director with the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.

Muted reactions

But China has officially kept quiet about the runway upgrade as well as other infrastructure plans on the Philippine-held islets. Those plans also marked a scaling back in April from Duterte’s original idea of visiting Thitu himself and planting his national flag.

Taiwan and Vietnam sometimes issue protest statements when they sense threats to their Spratly claims but seldom follow up.

“Depending on how the bilateral relationship goes, China might even let it go quietly, as long as Duterte remains to be China-friendly,” said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

Three Marines were wounded after suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) waylaid a military convoy heading back to their detachment in San Vicente town in Palawan province Saturday morning.

Report from Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan (Mimaropa) police said personnel of the Philippine Marines battalion landing team (MLBT) on board an M35 and an elf official Marine service vehicle were ambushed by suspected NPA rebels at a forested area just two kilometers away from the Marine detachment in Barangay (village) Itabiak at around 6:45 a.m.

The Marines were from El Nido going to the MLTB headquarters in Barangay Minara in Roxas town when they were fired upon by the rebels. Despite under heavy fire, the government forces were able to fire back at the attackers, forcing the rebels to retreat.
Wounded in the incident were Technical Sergeant Restituto Selvino, 30; Corporal Melvin Villa, 44; and Cpl. Christian Day Rentillo, 29.

Suspected New People’s Army (NPA)rebels waylaid and killed on Saturday a policeman who was on board a police service vehicle near a dump site in Monreal town in Masbate province, report reaching the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Bicol said.

Senior Inspector Maria Luisa Calubaquib, Bicol police spokesperson, said Police Officer 2 Mervin Capellan, who was assigned at the Monreal police station, was killed in the rebel attack that took place at about 6:18 a.m. in Sitio (sub-village) Tamborong in Barangay (village) Poblacion.

She said the victim was driving the police van and was negotiating a road near the town dump site when he was shot to death by at least 20 suspected communist rebels. Capellan died instantly due to bullet wounds.

Calubaquib said the slain cop was on his way back to the town police station after taking the police van to a carwash service center for cleaning.

Is the Philippines up to the task of handling the latest wave of Islamist terrorism?

Image Credit: Romeo Ranoco, Reuters

On May 23, a unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operating on a tip, moved in on a safehouse in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, where a top Abu Sayyaf leader, Isnilon Hapilon, was said to be holed up. It was a setup. What was supposed to be a quick operation turned into a four month quagmire, with a death toll of some 147 members of the security forces and 45 civilians. Like the botched Mamasapano raid in January 2015 that led to the death of 44 Philippine National Police Special Action Forces, this was a tactical fiasco with strategic consequences. The Philippines is once again seen as the weak link in regional security, at a time when the Islamic State has lost nearly 90 percent of its territory in Iraq and Syria and is seeking local conflicts in the post-caliphate era. With a city in rubble, and the majority of its 400,000 population still displaced, angry, and not confident in the government’s ability to rebuild it and prevent future attacks, Moro grievances continue to grow, as new groups proliferate and metastasize.

An Intelligence Failure

By every measure, Marawi was a glaring intelligence failure. The AFP is spread thin. In addition to a resurgent New People’s Army, the AFP is confronting the splintering of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a revived Abu Sayyaf, and a panoply of small groups that pledged bai’at to the Islamic State. The context of Marawi was the government’s abject failure to grasp a rapidly devolving security situation.

Starting in March 2016, Abu Sayyaf began a campaign of maritime kidnapping, taking 65 sailors and fishermen from six separate countries in maritime operations. Two more individuals were killed during ship-boardings, and scores more were either not taken or released. But the spate of maritime attacks put significant diplomatic pressure on the Philippine government, which acquiesced to the demands of Malaysia and Indonesia to establish joint maritime patrols, and ceded the right of hot pursuit into Philippine waters.

Abu Sayyaf then attempted a raid in the resort region of Bohol, in the otherwise peaceful Visayas, in April 2017. While the AFP had claimed success in driving Isnilon Hapilon and his men out of Basilan, they had little understanding of why they moved to Marawi, in the Marano-dominated region of Lanao del Sur.

Hapilon was the first Southeast Asian to declare his allegiance to the Islamic State, done in a YouTube video in July 2014. In the following months, at least six other Philippine-based groups followed suit. The government and AFP repeatedly downplayed the threat, as late as mid-2017, calling them “ISIS wannabes.”

In part this was because the Islamic State did not immediately recognize any of the groups. Finally, in January 2016, Al Naba, a central ISIS media organ, stated that ISIS had established a “branch” in Southeast Asia and recognized Hapilon as the Emir of Islamic State militants in Southeast Asia, and called on other cells, including Ansar al-Shariah, Ma’rakah al-Ansar, Ansarul Khilafah Philippines, and al-Harakatul al-Islamiyyah, which is based in Basilan, to act as “battalions” under his command.[Read the full story here, in The Diplomat Subscription required for full article.]

A photo of Ezzeddin Soud Tan lifted from his Facebook account —JULIE S. ALIPALAThe scourge of kidnappings was brought to the doorstep of an influential Sulu political clan, whose patriarch had been involved in some of the province’s most successful negotiations to free kidnap victims.

Ezzeddin Tan, councilor of Jolo town in Sulu province and nephew of former Sulu Vice Gov. Abdusakur Tan, was taken by armed men in Indanan, another town in Sulu, on Wednesday.

Ezzedin, in his late 20s, was biking in the village of Tagbak in Indanan when he was kidnapped, said Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, head of the anticrime multiagency Joint Task Group Sulu.

Sobejana said Tan was a member of Tausog Bikers Club.

During his kidnapping, he was with at least 11 other bikers. The suspects, however, took only Tan.

Sobejana said Tan’s group was on its way back to Jolo when the armed men struck.

The provincial government immediately organized a crisis management team for the recovery of the victim.

“Search and rescue operations are ongoing,” Sobejana said.

Ezzedin’s uncle, Abdusakur, had been involved in successful negotiations to free kidnapping victims in the past.

In January, a Korean kidnap victim was turned over by Abdusakur to Presidential Peace Process Adviser Jesus Dureza.

Last year, a number of Indonesians who were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf were turned over to the former governor.

An Abu Sayyaf jail escapee and two carnappers were nabbed in separate operations in Basilan.

(MANILA BULLETIN)

Boy Indama was apprehended through the joint efforts of the troops from the 74th Infantry Battalion, Lamitan City Police Station, and Regional Public Safety Battalion in Lamitan City at 12:45 p.m. last September 28, 2017.

Indama is an Abu Sayyaf member under Furuji Indama who escaped from Basilan Provincial Jail on December 13, 2009.

He has an existing warrant of arrest for kidnapping and serious illegal detention in Barangay Magcawa, Al-Barka, Basilan.

Indama was immediately brought to the Lamitan District Hospital for medical attention and was subsequently turned over to the Lamitan City Police for proper disposition and documentation.

Meanwhile, troops from the 4th Special Forces Battalion on checkpoint in Barangay Cabunbata, Isabela City, Basilan apprehended two carnappers last Thursday at 7am.

Salam Aslatan and Nuruddin Duray, both of legal age, had been sought by law enforcers for carnapping.

Seized from their possession were two motorcycles owned by Mursid Halikin, a resident of Tipo-Tipo, Basilan.

The apprehended carnappers and the recovered items were turned-over to the Isabela City Police for proper disposition.

This was how President Rodrigo Duterte responded when asked if he was still keen on the resumption of the peace talks with the communist rebels during an interview with state-run PTV4 aired on Friday night.

“Wala namang mangyari diyan,”he said when asked if he would still send Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza and chief government negotiator Seilvestre Bello III to Norway.

Norway is the third party facilitator between the Philippine government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

Duterte had previously said he was open to resume peace talks if the communists declare a ceasefire.

In July, Duterte ended the peace talks with the communists following a series of attacks carried out by the NPA against government forces. He even said that he will not allow the resumption of peace talks unless the NPA stops its extortion activities.

The fifth round of peace talks with the rebels was suspended on May 27, after the government panel withdrew from the negotiating table after the CPP ordered NPA guerrillas to intensify attacks against security forces.

Soldiers guard a lakeside mosque near Marawi after several gunmen aboard a boat were spotted near the area, Sept. 28, 2017.

With timely international military and intelligence assistance, Philippine security forces have successfully contained, isolated and eliminated the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) in Marawi.

Almost 700 Filipino and foreign fighters who embraced IS ideology and practice have been killed in four months of intense combat. Fewer than 70 IS fighters now hold a battle space of less than 10 hectares. The troop advance has been slow, as the urban area is heavily mined with snipers and explosives. IS also holds three dozen hostages, some of whom have turned fighters or supporters under duress.

IS in Marawi compared its initial success to the IS siege of Mosul, and copied IS practices in Syria and Iraq.

IS Marawi burned the police station and the city jail and freed the inmates. It executed officials, including the chief of intelligence of Marawi. It occupied homes and raided shops to replenish supplies. IS Marawi videoed its members executing Christians in orange uniform, and forced young female hostages to become sex slaves, referring to them as goats.

After burning Saint Mary's Cathedral and Dansalan College, IS took hostage Christian leaders, staff, teachers and students. To the hostages, some of whom became fighters, IS preached its ideology, which has been rejected by the Muslim population at large. Some 350,000 people were displaced from Marawi and surrounding areas, and parts of their city were reduced to rubble.

The largest IS-centric groups – Islamic State Lanao (ISL) led by the Maute brothers, and Islamic State Philippines (ISP) led by Isnilon Hapilon – sieged the Islamic City of Marawi on May 23. The ISP and ISL engaged in a fierce battle with over 12,000 military and police personnel, supported by U.S. and Australian forces. But contrary to IS expectations, Maranaos were shocked by the siege, and rejected the IS presence.

The lack of public support severely weakened the militants’ ability to hold Marawi. Their project to establish an IS province (wilayat) failed.

Regrouping

With the death of many of the directing figures of the fight – including Abdullah, Utto and Mahdi Maute – the battle in Marawi is coming to an end. Nonetheless, a dozen local groups that have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have resumed their activities in other parts of Mindanao.

Unless the threat is managed with exceptional care, IS will persist and is likely to spread from Mindanao to Sabah in Malaysia, and to eastern Indonesia.

The most active of the threat groups operating outside Marawi is the IS-directed Jamaah Al Muhajirin wal Anshor (JMA), a group in the southern Philippines with extensive links to foreign fighters.

JMA is attacking the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest armed group, which is working with the Duterte government to establish a permanent peace.

Guided by IS, JMA is determined to breakup MILF. IS believes that its attacks will fracture MILF and that pro-IS members within MILF will splinter and join IS-centric groups.

Esmael Abdulmaguid (alias Abu Turaipe), who leads JMA, is adept at attracting foreign fighters.The latest encounter between MILF and JMA was at Barangay Tee, Datu Salibo, Maguindanao on Sept. 27.As the battle in Marawi comes to an end, the clashes elsewhere in Mindanao are likely to increase in frequency, scale and magnitude.

End game

Until the IS siege of Marawi on May 23, 2017, the Philippine government was in denial of an IS presence in Mindanao. However, the response of the Philippine government to the Marawi siege was decisive.

The fighting lasted over four months, for three reasons.

First, the government underestimated IS ideology and fighting capabilities, especially the use of snipers and explosive devices. Second, the terrain could not be effectively cordoned and sealed. Third, the Philippine military units were trained for jungle and rural warfare, not urban warfare.

Until August 2017, the infiltration and exfiltration of IS from the Main Battle Area (MBA) enabled IS to replenish its human losses and material wastage. The fighters formed three layers of defense protecting Hapilon, Abdullah and Omarkhayam. With huge battlefield losses, the MBA is isolated, but the remaining quality leadership and the human shield of hostages will protract the fight for another few weeks.

The deaths of several leaders and experienced fighters in Marawi represent the most significant loss the IS has suffered in the Philippines to date. Abdullah Maute was IS operational leader in Marawi until August 2017, when he was killed in combat. Having lived and studied in Marawi, Abdullah planned and led the fight there under the symbolic leadership of Hapilon, overall emir of IS in the Philippines.

Today, Omarkhayam Maute, the vice emir, has succeeded his brother Abdullah, despite injuries suffered during the fighting. With the saturation of Philippine security forces in Marawi, the fight against IS is steadily coming to an end. Both Hapilon and Omarkhayam must fight or flee. Yet they are unlikely to flee and link up with other IS-centric groups. The chief adviser to Hapilon, Dr. Mahmud bin Ahmad of Malaysia, has fabricated a suicide vest, which he is likely to wear in the final battle.

The landscape ahead

Hapilon, a longtime leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group, has instructed his IS men to merge with pro-IS fighters within the ASG rank and file of Radulan Sahiron, and to plan armed attacks in different places in Mindanao. They wish to target the cities of Iligan, Cagayan de Oro and Cotabato. Both ISP and ISL fighters have planned to conduct terrorist activities in the municipalities of Lumbatan, Bayang, Tugaya and Madalum in Lanao del Sur, around Lake Lanao. Some of these plans have been intercepted and disrupted.However, IS Philippines cannot hold territory unless it has a stronger fighting force. As long as the MILF led by Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim is intact, IS Philippines will not achieve its immediate goals. Demography and geography limit IS expansion and dominance in the southern Philippines. Unless MILF breaks up and a large faction joins IS, the rise of IS is not an existential threat to the Philippines.

Nevertheless, the IS-centric threat landscape outside Marawi is growing. In Mindanao, several groups have joined IS. And the very presence of IS in Mindanao threatens not only the Philippines but its neighbors.

After having attempted and failed to create a province (wilayat) in the eastern edge of Asia, IS central in Syria is thinking long-term.

It intends to build IS forces in the southern Philippines and infiltrate neighboring Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country.

IS created its East Asia Division with the intention of expanding from the Philippines to parts of Northeast and Southeast Asia. If IS spreads to Sabah in Malaysia and to eastern Indonesia, it will pose a significant challenge to Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the entire region.

Troops in Maguindanao are fighting the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, another ISIS-linked local terror group

Another explosion rocked the province of Maguindanao on Friday, September 29, the 3rd to hit the province this week.

Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesman of the 6th Infantry Division, said the explosion rocked the town of Guindulungan on Friday but no one was hurt. He said the military had cleared the area but troops were placed on "double alert."A report obtained by Rappler shows the incident happened along the Cotabato-Insulan national highway at 7:30 pm on Friday.

Encinas said investigators had yet to identify those responsible for the explosion.

Troops there are fighting the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the breakaway group of the dominant Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The BIFF has reported links with interantional terrorist network Islamic State (ISIS).

Twin blasts hit nearby town Datu Odin Sinsuat on Wednesday, September 27. Four people sustained shrapnel wounds that infliced minor injuries, said Encinas.

The 4 were responding to an explosion near an Army training camp in the barangay when a second explosion took place.

The military tagged the BIFF as responsible for the blast, supposedly to divert military attention from operations against them.

The military said the BIFF initially planned to reinforce the Maute Group in Marawi City. Troops there were instructed to keep local terrorists from crossing to neighboring province Lanao Del Sur, where Marawi City is located.

The Sandiganbayan has officially received the transmittal letter from the Davao City Regional Trial Court (RTC) saying Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chairman Nur Misuari has successfully posted a P460,000-bail in connection with his graft and malversation case.

On Friday, Third Division Clerk of Court lawyer Dennis Pulma said the anti-graft court received the original copy of the bail bond via mail on September 28.

Pulma added Executive Judge Emmanuel Carpio of the 11th Judicial Region-Davao City approved the bail as per his order dated September 19. Judge Carpio is a brother of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

Misuari was charged with three counts each of graft and malversation through falsification for allegedly conspiring with his co-accused in giving "unwarranted benefits, advantage and privilege" to three private companies.

Arrest warrants were released on two counts each of graft and malversation since the Sandiganbayan ordered the prosecution to present further evidence on the remaining counts.

The case stemmed over the alleged anomalous procurement of educational materials worth P115 million during Misuari's term as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from 2000 to 2001.

Smoke billows from buildings in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, as fighting between government troops and Islamic State-linked militants continue, Sept. 16, 2017.

Philippine troops have killed five top Islamic State-linked militants in Marawi, including Abdullah Maute, but Isnilon Hapilon and Omarkhayam Maute are still holed up with the remaining combatants in the southern city, officials said Friday.

Abdullah and his lesser-known brothers Madhi and Utto were killed together with two foreign fighters during recent clashes in Marawi, according to Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, the regional military chief. Galvez did not identify the foreigners.

Galvez made the announcement four days after voicing optimism that the Marawi gun battles would be over in “10 days or two weeks.”

Abdullah and his brother Omarkhayam were the leaders of the Maute gang, a ragtag band of militants who backed Abu Sayyaf chief Isnilon Hapilon – the acknowledged commander of the IS in the region – when his forces took over Marawi city on May 23.

“Our report was that Abdullah, Madhi and Utto were killed along with two foreigners,” Galvez told reporters. “This is judgment day for them. Our troops are now pushing hard. I believe some of the Maute members are very desperate.”

It was not clear whether the five militant leaders were among 16 cadavers recovered by soldiers Thursday from the rubble of Marawi’s frontline.

Galvez said police had collected DNA samples from each of those cadavers to ascertain their identities. He would not say what his basis was for announcing the Maute deaths.

The military had erroneously reported in June that Omarkhayam Maute had died, only to retract that statement.

Hapilon, who is on Washington’s list of most-wanted terrorists, was believed still in command of the remaining militants, estimated by officials to number between to 45 and 80, along with several foreign fighters, in the battle zone.

"So our initial findings, Omar and Hapilon were the two defending the positions," Galvez said Friday.

Close to ending?

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier said the fighting was close to ending. On Thursday, troops intercepted a small number of militants who were believed to be trying to reinforce the Marawi militants through the porous borders of Lake Lanao.

Fighting was still raging in that area, and there were fears the fighting could spill over to other Muslim areas in the south, officials said.

With the latest development on the ground, Galvez expressed hope that the military would soon recover a substantial portion of the 10 hectares (24.7 acres) still controlled by the militants.

“In the next three days, we believe that we will have substantial results because for the past two weeks, we have a major breakthrough in terms of enemy killed and recovered firearms,” Galvez said.

At least 736 enemy fighters, 153 government forces and 47 civilians had been killed in fighting during the past four months, the presidential palace said Friday.

More than 1,700 civilians trapped in the fighting or taken hostage had been rescued, and a cache of unexploded homemade bombs and more than 700 firearms had also been recovered from slain militants, officials said.

Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of the military’s task force in the area, said ground troops had also seized six sacks of coins used by Maute militants as components for their homemade bombs.

“They are using it as shrapnel. There are instances our troops were hit by coins,” Brawner said, adding that the coins were part of currencies looted by the gunmen from local banks.

Toll on evacuees

The fighting has emptied Marawi of its more than 200,000 residents, with thousands now sheltering with relatives and in packed evacuation camps.

Supplies have not yet run dry, and donations keep coming in. But officials said health and sanitary conditions were fast deteriorating.

Health officials said that at least 56 evacuees had died of various illnesses in the camps, nine of them infants born in the squalor.

Dr. Alinader Minalao, the provincial health administrator, said that based on their records, many of those who had died perished from complications related to pneumonia, severe dehydration and heart diseases.

"Despite yesterday's casualties, today the government forces will fight harder [to end the war] so that the rehabilitation of Marawi can continue unhampered," said Colonel Romeo Brawner, Task Group Ranao deputy commander.

The video is undated and the exact location is still being determined by authorities.

“This reinforces the revelations of rescued former hostages that the terrorists are looting important materials inside the MBA,” Brawner said.

Reports of looting by the terrorists have surfaced since the early part of the crisis that started May 23. Accounts of hostages who were rescued or escaped have said that the terrorists looted houses and establishments.

Government forces also recovered ATM money vaults from Landbank, which was turned over to the bank’s manager.

They also recovered a sack containing coins believed to be used as shrapnel by terrorists in making improvised explosive devices.

Lt. Col. Emmanuel Garcia of JTF Marawi said the terrorists were using other kinds of metals such as nails and bolts as shrapnels.

“In previous incidents we are wondering why some wounded have coins in their wounds. Ito pala yun, ngayon natin establish na ginagamit nila ang mga coins sa shrapnel (This was it. Now we can establish that they are using coins as shrapnel),” he said.

From GMA News (Sep 29): Two more Marawi mosques remain in the hands of Maute —military

[Video report]

Only two more mosques remain in the hands of the ISIS-inspired Maute group in Marawi City, but government troops are confident they will be able to retake them in a week or two, GMA News' Jun Veneracion reported on 24 Oras on Friday.

The report said the Philippine flag was raised at the White Mosque on Friday morning, after it was retaken by the military from the terrorists after 130 days of fighting.

The mosque served as the Maute group's logistics area and was also the place where they hid their hostages, the report said.

"With the capture of the White Mosque this morning, we are now placing 'yung area na ginagawalan natin sa 300x300 or less. More or less 8 to 9 hectares, " said Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, commander of the military's Western Mindanao Command.

"Ten to 15 days tapos na ito," he added, referring to the conflict in Marawi City that has been raging since May 23.

The report said the terrorists are already weakened by lack of food and ammunition, prompting three of them to surrender recently.

It added that the military believes in three days' time the defense of the Maute group in Marawi City can be considered negligible.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the judgment day for them," Galvez said in a press briefing.

The report said 15 bodies of suspected terrorists were found near Bato Mosque, which has already been retaken by government soldiers, on Thursday. It was at the this mosque where the Maute group assembled their improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Among the items seized from Bato Mosque were six sacks of coins. The military said coins were used as shrapnels by the terrorists for their IEDs.

"There have been instances already in the past where our troops have been hit by coins," said Colonel Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of Joint Task Force Ranao.

From Sun Star-Baguio (Sep 28): NPA rebel surrenders in KalingaMEMBER of the New People’s Army based in Kalinga province voluntarily surrendered to the government September 24 at Barangay Pantikian, Balbalan.

Local officials of pantikian and Balbalan coordinated with the police in the surrender of Joseph Masadao, 53, single, resident of Sitio Ubel, Gawaan, Balbalan.

Masadao was an alleged member of Milisyang Bayan (MB) under the command of Marcial Dagay operating in the province of Kalinga and nearby provinces.

The alleged rebel voluntarily surrendered to the joint personnel of Balbalan Municipal Police Station, 3rd MC, Regional Public Safety Batallion, Police Regional Office in the Cordillera and members of the 50th IB of the Philippine Army.

After his surrender, Masadao was immediately brought to the Western Kalinga District Hospital for Medical treatment and later referred to Kalinga Provincial Hospital, Tabuk City for further medical attention after suffering an injury caused by the eroded tunnel at Gaang Gold Mining.

The rebel returnee is now under the protection of the authorities, and is undergoing processing for facilitation of benefits and financial assistance given by government to start a new and peaceful life.

PRO-COR regional director Chief Superintendent Elmo Francis Sarona said Masadao is just one among other rebels who opted to withdraw their armed struggle for them to be with their families and to seek for a reformed life in the community.

“This is why we encourage more rebels to return to the folds of the law,” added Sarona.

“The continuous surrender of the members of the NPA only manifests that the intensified programs of the government troops to counter the insurgency problem in the region is effective thus rebels are starting to surrender and return back to the folds of the law,” Sarona added